Method and apparatus for measuring timing of signals received from multiple base stations in a CDMA communication system

ABSTRACT

Techniques to more accurately measure the arrival times of transmissions received at a remote terminal from a number of base stations. In one aspect, unassigned finger processors are used to process and measure the arrival times of transmissions from base stations not in the active set. In another aspect, if no finger processors are available for assignment, the arrival times can be measured in the time period between updates of a reference oscillator used for the measurements. In accordance with a method for determining a position of a remote terminal, a first set of one or more base stations in active communication with the remote terminal is identified and each base station in the first set is assigned at least one finger processor. A second set of one or more base stations not in active communication with the remote terminal is also identified and an available finger processor is assigned to each of at least one base station in the second set. A (signal arrival) time measurement is then performed for each base station, and outputs indicative of the measurements are provided for further processing. To improve accuracy, the measurements can be performed within a narrow time window.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

I. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to data communication. More particularly,the present invention relates to a novel and improved method andapparatus for measuring timing of signals received from multiple basestations in a CDMA communication system.

II. Description of the Related Art

A modern day communication system is required to support a variety ofapplications. One such communication system is a code division multipleaccess (CDMA) system that supports voice and data communication betweenusers over a terrestrial link. The use of CDMA techniques in a multipleaccess communication system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307,entitled “SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USINGSATELLITE OR TERRESTRIAL REPEATERS,” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,459,entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING WAVEFORMS IN A CDMA CELLULARTELEPHONE SYSTEM.” A specific CDMA system is disclosed in U.S. PatentNo. 6,574,211, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HIGH RATE PACKET DATATRANSMISSION,” issued Jun. 3, 2003. These patents are assigned to theassignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference.

A CDMA system is typically designed to conform to one or more standards.Such standards include the “TIA/EIA/IS-95 Remote terminal-Base StationCompatibility Standard for Dual-Mode Wideband Spread Spectrum CellularSystem” (the IS-95 standard), the standard offered by a consortium named“3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP) and embodied in a set ofdocuments including Document Nos. 3G TS 25.211, 25.212, 25.213, 25.214,25.133, 25.305, 25.331 and 3G TR 25.926 (the W-CDMA standard), and the“TR-45.5 Physical Layer Standard for cdma2000 Spread Spectrum Systems”(the cdma2000 standard). New CDMA standards are continually proposed andadopted for use. These CDMA standards are incorporated herein byreference.

A CDMA system can be operated to support voice and data communication.During a particular communication (e.g., a voice call), a remoteterminal may be in active communication with one or more base stations,which are typically placed in an “active set” of the remote terminal.The remote terminal may also receive signals from one or more other basestations for other types of transmission such as, for example, pilot,paging, broadcast, and so on.

The CDMA system can be designed with the capability to determine theposition of a remote terminal. In fact, the Federal CommunicationsCommission (FCC) has mandated support for an enhanced emergency 911(E-911) service whereby the location of a remote terminal in a 911 callis required to be sent to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). Forposition determination, the arrival times of the transmissions from anumber of base stations are measured at the remote terminal. Thedifferences between the signal arrival times can then be computed andtranslated into pseudo-ranges, which are then used to determine theposition of the remote terminal.

Various challenges are encountered in measuring the signal arrivaltimes. For example, in a wireless communication system, the mobility ofthe remote terminal may affect the accuracy of the arrival timemeasurements, if these measurements are not made close in time. Also,the arrival times are typically measured based on the internal timing ofthe remote terminal, which may be continually adjusted to track thetiming of one of the base stations with which the remote terminal is incommunication. The remote terminal's movement and the variation (anduncertainty) in its time reference can impact the accuracy of thearrival time measurements, which may in turn translate to a lessaccurate estimate of the position of the remote terminal.

Accordingly, techniques that can be used to improve the accuracy of thearrival time measurements, which may lead to improved accuracy in theestimated position of the remote terminal, are highly desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides various techniques to more accurately measure thearrival times of transmissions received at a remote terminal from anumber of base stations. In accordance with one aspect of the invention,unassigned finger processors are used to process and measure the arrivaltimes of transmissions from base stations not in the remote terminal'sactive set. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, if nofinger processors are available for assignment to base stations not inthe active set, the arrival times can be measured in the time periodbetween updates of a reference clock used for the measurements. This canreduce the adverse effect due to slewing of the reference clock as it isadjusted to track the timing of one of the base stations. To reduce theadverse effect due to movement of a mobile remote terminal, the arrivaltimes can be measured within as short a time window as possible.

An aspect of the invention provides a method for determining a positionof a remote terminal in a communication system. In accordance with themethod, a first set of one or more base stations in active communicationwith the remote terminal is identified and each base station in thefirst set is assigned at least one finger processor of a rake receiver.A second set of one or more base stations not in active communicationwith the remote terminal is also identified and an available fingerprocessor is assigned to each of at least one base station in the secondset. A (signal arrival) time measurement (e.g., an SFN-SFN measurement,as defined by W-CDMA standard, or a Pilot Phase measurement, as definedin IS-801) is then performed for each base station assigned with atleast one finger processor. Outputs indicative of the time measurementsobtained for the assigned base stations are then provided (e.g., to thesystem) for further processing. Since the finger processors operate inparallel, the measurement can be performed at approximately the sameinstance in time. This greatly improves the usability of themeasurements for position location techniques.

To determine the position of the remote terminal, the arrival times forthe earliest arriving multipaths for three or four base stations and/orsatellites can be measured.

Various aspects, embodiments, and features of the invention aredescribed in further detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features, nature, and advantages of the present invention willbecome more apparent from the detailed description set forth below whentaken in conjunction with the drawings in which like referencecharacters identify correspondingly throughout and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a communication system in whichthe invention may be implemented;

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an embodiment of the signalprocessing for a downlink transmission;

FIG. 3 is a diagram that illustrates the transmissions received at aremote terminal from a number of base stations;

FIG. 4 is a diagram that illustrates the estimation of the remoteterminal's position based on computed time offsets between transmissionsfrom the base stations and/or satellites;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of the processing to determinethe position of a remote terminal, wherein finger processors areassigned to base stations not in the active set;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of the processing to determinethe position of a remote terminal, wherein finger processors are notavailable for assignment to base stations not in the active set; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a rake receiver that canbe used to implement various aspects of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a communication system 100 that supports a numberof users. System 100 provides communication for a number of cells 102 athrough 102 g, with each cell 102 being serviced by a corresponding basestation 104. Various remote terminals 106 are dispersed throughout thesystem. In an embodiment, each remote terminal 106 may communicate withone or more base stations 104 on the downlink and uplink at any givenmoment, depending on whether the remote terminal is in soft handoff. Thedownlink (forward link) refers to transmission from the base station tothe remote terminal, and the uplink (reverse link) refers totransmission from the remote terminal to the base station. System 100may be designed to conform to one or more CDMA standards, such as theIS-95, W-CDMA, cdma2000, and other standards, or a combination thereof.

As shown in FIG. 1, base station 104 a transmits to remote terminals 106a and 106 j on the downlink, base station 104 b transmits to remoteterminals 106 b, 106 e, and 106 j, base station 104 c transmits toremote terminals 106 a, 106 c, and 106 d, and so on. In FIG. 1, thesolid line with the arrow indicates a user-specific data transmissionfrom the base station to the remote terminal. A broken line with thearrow indicates that the remote terminal is receiving pilot and othersignaling, but no user-specific data transmission, from the basestation. The uplink communication is not shown in FIG. 1 for simplicity.

For certain applications, such as position determination, remoteterminal 106 may also receive transmissions from one or more GlobalPositioning System (GPS) satellites 108. The satellite transmissions canbe used to supplement the base station measurements to determine theposition of the remote terminal, as described in further detail below.

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an embodiment of the signalprocessing for a downlink transmission. At base station 104, data issent, typically in packets, from a data source 212 to an encoder 214.Encoder 214 performs a number of functions, depending on the particularCDMA system or standard being implemented. Such functions typicallyinclude formatting each data packet with the necessary control fields,cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits, and code tail bits. Encoder 214 thenencodes one or more formatted packets with a particular coding schemeand interleaves (i.e., reorders) the symbols within the encoded packets.Encoder 214 also may perform rate matching of the packet (e.g., byrepeating or puncturing bits).

The interleaved packet is provided to a modulator (MOD) 216 and may bescrambled with a scrambling sequence (for IS-95 CDMA system), coveredwith a channelization code, and spread with spreading codes (e.g., shortPNI and PNQ codes). The spreading with the spreading codes is referredto as “scrambing” by the W-CDMA standard. The channelization code can bean orthogonal variable spreading factor (OVSF) code (for W-CDMA system),a Walsh code (for IS-95 CDMA system), or some other orthogonal code,again depending on the particular CDMA system or standard beingimplemented. The spread data is then provided to a transmitter (TMTR)218 and quadrature modulated, filtered, and amplified to generate one ormore modulated signals. The modulated signal(s) are transmittedover-the-air from one or more antennas 220. The downlink processing isdescribed in further detail in the applicable CDMA standards.

At the receiver unit, the modulated signals from one or more basestations 104 are received by an antenna 230 and routed to a receiver(RCVR) 232. Receiver 232 filters, amplifies, quadrature demodulates, anddigitizes the received signal. The digitized samples are then providedto a demodulator (DEMOD) 234 and despreaded (or descrambled) withdespreading codes, (possibly) descrambled with a descrambling code (forthe IS-95 CDMA system), and decovered with a channelization code foreach physical channel being processed. The despreading, descrambling,and channelization codes correspond to the codes used at the transmitterunit. The demodulated data is then provided to a decoder 236 thatperforms the inverse of the functions performed at encoder 214 (e.g.,the de-interleaving, decoding, and CRC check functions). The decodeddata is provided to a data sink 238. A controller 240 can direct theoperation of demodulator 234 and decoder 236.

The block diagram, as described above, supports transmissions of packetdata, messaging, voice, video, and other types of communication on thedownlink. A bidirectional communication system also supports uplinktransmission from the remote station to the base station. However, theuplink processing is not shown in FIG. 2 for simplicity.

Referring back to FIG. 1, each remote terminal 106 may receiveuser-specific and/or general transmissions from one or more basestations 104 on the downlink. For example, remote terminal 106 econcurrently receives user-specific (i.e., dedicated) transmissions frombase stations 104 d and 104 e. Each remote terminal 106 typicallymaintains a list of the base stations with which it is in activecommunication. This list is typically referred to as the remoteterminal's active set. Each remote terminal 106 may also receive othergeneral (i.e., non-user dedicated) transmissions (e.g., pilot, paging,broadcast, and so on) from other base stations with which the remoteterminal may or may not be in active communication. These other basestations may be placed in a second list maintained by the remoteterminal. For simplicity, the base stations in the active set are hereinreferred to as the “active” base stations, and the base stations in thesecond list are referred to as the “inactive” base stations.

FIG. 3 is a diagram that illustrates the transmissions received at aremote terminal from a number of base stations (three in this example).For some CDMA systems (e.g., the W-CDMA system), the transmissions frommultiple base stations may not be synchronous. For these CDMA systems,radio frames can be transmitted starting at different times fordifferent base stations. Moreover, the propagation time of thetransmission can be different for each base station, depending on thedistance between the base station and the remote terminal. Thus, thetransmissions from different base stations are typically received by theremote terminal at different times.

For some applications, it is useful or necessary to know the arrivaltimes of the transmissions from multiple base stations. The signalarrival times, as measured at the remote terminal, can then be used tocompute time differences or time offsets, ΔT, between the transmissionsreceived from various base stations. If the base stations transmitasynchronously (as for the W-CDMA system) and since the propagationtimes are variable, the time offsets ΔT can take on any (random) values.

As shown in FIG. 3, the radio frames (B1, B2, . . . ) received from basestation 2 are offset in time by ΔT_(1,2) from the radio frames (A1, A2,. . . ) received from base station 1. Similarly, the radio frames (C1,C2, . . . ) received from base station 3 are offset by ΔT_(1,3) from theradio frames received from base station 1. The time offsets ΔT_(1,2) andΔT_(1,3) are not defined by a particular relationship.

The time offsets ΔT can be used for various applications. For example,in the W-CDMA system, an SFN-SFN (system frame number) measurement(equivalent to the time offset ΔT in FIG. 3) can be made by the remoteterminal and sent to the system so that the transmission from a new basestation can be compensated as part of a hand-over process. Thecompensation approximately aligns the time at which radio frames fromdifferent base stations are received by the mobile station (or UserEquipment, UE). The time offset between the new and current basestations during the hand-over is specific to the remote terminal.Typically, a coarse SFN-SFN measurement (e.g., one chip or worseresolution) is adequate for this application.

In another application, the time offsets are used to determine theposition of the remote terminal. In a trilateration technique, thearrival times for transmissions from a number of base stations aremeasured at the remote terminal. The time offsets are then computed andused to derive the distances to the base stations, which are in turnused to determine the position of the remote terminal. For thisapplication, accurate arrival time measurements are needed, and greateraccuracy in the measurements translates to a more accurate estimate ofthe remote terminal's position. For example, at a chip rate of 1.2288Mcps, 1 chip of temporal resolution equates to a spatial resolution ofapproximately 244 meters. Location estimation accuracy is a function ofthe “spatial resolution” of the measurements and of the geometry(position with respect to the mobile station) of the base stations. Fora given geometry, a better spatial resolution yields better locationestimation accuracy. Sub-chip resolution (e.g., half chip, quarter,eighth, sixteenth, and so on) allows for more accurate positionestimates. For example, sixteenth chip resolution at a chip rate of1.2288 Mcps equates to a spatial resolution of approximately 15 meters.And in the W-CDMA system, the chip rate is 3.84 Mcps, which can provideimproved spatial resolution.

As noted above, various challenges are encountered in making accuratearrival time measurements. First, for a remote terminal that is moving,the signal arrival times for all base stations of interest should bemeasured close in time (e.g., concurrently) so that adverse effects dueto the remote terminal's movement are reduced or minimized. If thearrival times for transmissions from the base stations are measured atdifferent times, the measurements would include errors corresponding tothe amount of movement by the remote terminal. For example, for a remoteterminal traveling at 120 km/hr, measurements taken 200 msec apart wouldbe subject to an error of approximately 12 meters, the distance theremote terminal has moved during the 200 msec time period.

Second, the arrival times should be measured such that updates of theremote terminal's time reference minimally impact the accuracy of themeasurements. The remote terminal typically includes a referenceoscillator that is operated to track the timing of the most“significant” base station. Depending on the particular systemimplementation, the most significant base station may represent theearliest arriving base station or the strongest base station. For amobile remote terminal, the base station designated as the mostsignificant base station typically changes as the remote terminal movesabout the system. The reference oscillator may thus be adjusted (i.e.,slewed) from the time reference of the current significant base stationto that of a new significant base station in an attempt to track thetiming of the new base station. If the signal arrival times for the basestations are measured at two or more different points in time and if thereference oscillator is slewed during this time period, the accuracy ofthe measurements may be compromised since they are effectively made withdifferent time references.

The movement of the remote terminal and the slewing of the referenceoscillator can adversely affect the accuracy of the arrival timemeasurements. To reduce the adverse impact, the signal arrival times forall base stations of interest should be measured as close in time aspossible. If this is achieved, the measurements for all base stationsare similarly affected approximately cancel out.

A remote terminal in a CDMA system typically employs a rake receiver toprocess one or more transmissions on the downlink. The rake receivertypically includes a searcher element and a number of finger processors.The searcher element searches for strong instances of the receivedsignal (i.e., multipaths). The finger processors are then assigned toprocess the strongest multipaths to generate demodulated symbols forthose multipaths. The demodulated symbols from all assigned fingerprocessors can then be combined to generate recovered symbols that areimproved estimates of the transmitted data. The rake receiver can beused to efficiently combine energy received via multiple signal pathsfrom one or more base stations. A specific design of the rake receiveris described below.

The available finger processors of the rake receiver can be assigned toprocess multipaths from one or more base stations. The finger processorsare typically only assigned to process multipaths from base stations inthe remote terminal's active set. In certain operating modes (e.g.,sleep mode), the rake receiver may be operated to process paging orother transmissions from a base station for a short period of time todetermine whether there is a communication for it (and then falls backto sleep). The finger processors are thus conventionally used to processtransmissions and not to measure timing.

In many instances, not all available finger processors are assigned toprocess multipaths from the base stations in the active set during acommunication session. For example, ten finger processors may beavailable and only six may be assigned to process the multipaths fromtwo active base stations. In this case, four finger processors may beavailable for other use. It is typically not desirable to assign fingerprocessors to poor quality multipaths since the noise from thesemultipaths may degrade rather than improve the overall estimates.

In accordance with an aspect of the invention, unassigned fingerprocessors are used to process and measure the arrival times oftransmissions from base stations not in the active set. As noted above,a number of finger processors are typically available to process anumber of multipaths. Some of the available finger processors areassigned to process one or more multipaths for each base station in theactive set. Unassigned finger processors can then be assigned to processthe multipaths for base stations not in the active set.

To determine the position of the remote terminal, the finger processorscan be assigned to process at least one multipath from three or fourbase stations and/or satellites. For improved accuracy, the assignedfinger processors are operated such that the signal arrival times forall base stations are measured at approximately the same time. By makingthe measurements approximately concurrently, adverse effects associatedwith the remote terminal's movement and the reference oscillator'sslewing are ameliorated.

The searcher element can be operated to (continually) search formultipaths for active and inactive base stations. This can be achievedby performing a correlation of the digitized samples with various PNoffsets and computing the signal quality for each PN offset. Anavailable finger processor can then be assigned to a discoveredmultipath, of sufficient strength, for each of a number of basestations, as many as necessary for the particular application. Forexample, for position determination, multipaths for three or four basestations or satellites are processed.

Depending on the particular application being implemented, the fingerprocessors may be assigned to different types of multipath. For positiondetermination, the finger processors can be assigned to the earliestarriving multipaths that exceed a particular signal quality. For adirect line of sight transmission, the earliest arriving multipath isalso the strongest multipath. However, due to reflections in thetransmission path, the multipaths may add constructively ordestructively at the remote terminal depending on the amount of delaysexperienced by the multipaths. Thus, the earliest multipath may notnecessarily be the strongest multipath. For position determination, theearliest multipath is typically processed since it more likely to beindicative of a line-of-sight transmission (and distance).

A rake receiver can be designed with the capability to process thereceived signal with a time resolution of less than a chip. For example,some rake receivers are designed with eighth (⅛^(th)) chip resolution orfiner. This may be achieved by digitizing and processing the receivedsignal at eight times the chip rate. The increased resolution cantranslate to a more precise position determination. To further improvethe precision of the position determination, interpolation can be usedto generate interpolated samples having a particular time offset fromthe digitized samples. The interpolated samples can then be processed insimilar manner as for digitized samples.

In one embodiment, the available finger processors are assigned to basestations not in the active set only for the time duration needed tomeasure the signal arrival times (e.g., to perform the SFN-SFNmeasurements). In another embodiment, the finger processors are assignedto the non-active base stations on a longer-term basis (e.g., until thefinger processors are needed for another active base station). Thislonger-term assignment allows the finger processors to track the timingof the transmissions from the base stations being processed (e.g., totrack the pilot), which can result in improved accuracy for the arrivaltime measurements.

Rake receivers are typically designed to combine the demodulated symbolsfrom all assigned finger processors. However, since the fingerprocessors may be assigned to base stations not in the active set andused only to make signal arrival time measurements, the rake receiver ofthe invention is designed and operated such that symbols from inactivebase stations are not combined with those from active base stations.

Various types of transmission from the base stations can be processed tomeasure the signal arrival times. For example, the data transmission ona traffic channel, the pilot on a pilot channel, the messages on thepaging and broadcast channels, and so on, can be processed to determinethe signal arrival times. For some CDMA system (e.g., the W-CDMAsystem), the transmissions for various types of channel may not besynchronous. In an embodiment, a particular type of channel (e.g., thebroadcast channel) from all base stations can be selected forprocessing. In another embodiment, the finger processors are assigned toprocess different types of channels for different base stations. Theidentities of the channels processed by the remote terminal can beprovided to the system, which can then determine the time offset betweenthe different channel types and appropriately compensate the measuredarrival times.

In a specific embodiment that is especially applicable for the W-CDMAsystem, the signal arrival times are measured based on the broadcastchannel. The W-CDMA standard defines a (logical) broadcast controlchannel that is mapped to a (transport) broadcast channel (BCH) that isfurther mapped to a (physical) primary common control channel (P-CCPCH).The broadcast control channel is a higher layer channel that is used tobroadcast messages to the remote terminals. The broadcast messages aretransmitted in (10 msec) radio frames on the P-CCPCH. The P-CCPCH can beprocessed in a manner known in the art to determine the start of theradio frames, which can be used to represent the signal arrival timesfor the base stations. The time offsets between the base stations canthen be computed as the difference between the start of the radio framesfrom these base stations. The broadcast channel in the W-CDMA system isdescribed in further detail in the aforementioned 3G TS, 25.133, 25.305,and 25.331 documents.

Besides the broadcast channel, other transmissions and channels can alsobe processed to determine the signal arrival times. For example, thepilot reference can be processed and the signal arrival times can bedetermined based on the PN offset. User-specific data transmission (onan assigned traffic channel) may also be processed to determine thesignal arrival times.

Referring back to FIG. 3, the earliest multipath for a particularchannel (e.g., the broadcast channel) from the first base station can beprocessed and the start of the radio frame for this channel can bedetermined to occur at t₁. Similarly, the earliest multipath for thesecond and third base stations can be similarly processed and the startof the radio frames for these base stations can also be determined tooccur at t₂ and t₃, respectively. Although not shown in FIG. 3, theearliest multipath for a fourth base station can also be processed andthe start of the radio frame can be determined for this base station.One or more of the base stations may not be in the remote terminal'sactive set, but are assigned finger processors, if available, for thearrival time measurements. The processing for all base stations can beachieved approximately concurrently.

Based on the measured signal arrival times for the base stations, thetime offsets can then be determined. One of the base stations (e.g., theone with the earliest arriving multipath) can be selected as thereference base station. The time offsets for other base stations canthen be computed relative to this reference base station. For theexample shown in FIG. 3, the time offset between the first and secondbase stations can be computed as (ΔT_(1,2)=t₁−t₂), and the time offsetbetween the first and third base stations can be computed as(ΔT_(1,3)=t₁−t₃).

The determination of the position of the remote terminal based on thearrival times for the earliest arriving multipaths for three or fourbase stations and/or satellites can be achieved in accordance with thetechniques described in the 3GPP 25.305, TIA/EIA/IS-801, andTIA/EIA/IS-817 standard documents and in U.S. Patent No. 6,353,412,entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING POSITION LOCATION USINGREDUCED NUMBER OF GPS SATELLITES AND SYNCHRONIZED AND UNSYNCHRONIZEDBASE STATIONS,” issued Mar. 5, 2002. These documents and applicationsare incorporated herein by reference. The position determination can beperformed by the Position Determination Entity (PDE) or the SMLC. ThePDE or SMLC can be located in the MSC, in the Radio Network Controller(RNC), or can be independent.

FIG. 4 is a diagram that illustrates the determination of the remoteterminal's position based on the computed time offsets. In anembodiment, the SFN-SFN measurements indicative of the time offsets canbe provided to a mobile switching center (MSC) and further processed todetermine the position of the remote terminal. The MSC has knowledge ofthe actual timing and locations of the base stations. The MSC can thendetermine the actual (true) time offsets ΔT_(A1,2) and ΔT_(A1,3) bysubtracting the actual transmit times for these base stations from themeasured time offsets ΔT_(1,2) and ΔT_(1,3). The MSC can next determineparabolas 410 a and 410 b for the actual time offsets ΔT_(A1,2) andΔT_(A1,3), respectively. The remote terminal's position can beidentified as the intersection of the two parabolas.

In another embodiment, the remote terminal receives the actual timingand locations of the base stations and estimates its position based onthis information and the computed time offsets ΔT_(1,2) and ΔT_(1,3).The remote terminal can then transmit its position to one or more basestations.

The determination of the position of the remote terminal based on signalarrival time measurements is described in further detail in U.S. Pat.No. 6,081,229 entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE POSITIONOF A WIRELESS CDMA TRANSCEIVER,” issued Jun. 27, 2000, U.S. Pat. No.5,970,413, entitled “USING A FREQUENCY THAT IS UNAVAILABLE FOR CARRYINGTELEPHONE VOICE INFORMATION TRAFFIC FOR DETERMINING THE POSITION OF AMOBILE SUBSCRIBER IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM,” issued Oct. 19,1999, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,859,612 entitled “METHOD FOR USING AN ANTENNAWith A ROTATING BEAM FOR DETERMINING THE POSITION OF A MOBILE SUBSCRIBERIN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM,” issued Jan. 12, 1999. The patentsare assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporatedherein by reference.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of the processing to determinethe position of a remote terminal, wherein one or more finger processorsare assigned to one or more base stations not in the active set.Initially, the base stations in the active set of the remote terminalare identified, at step 512. The number of additional base stationsneeded to be processed to determine the position of the remote terminalis then determined, at step 514. Thereafter, the searcher element isoperated to find multipaths of the additional base stations, at step516, and an available finger processor is assigned to the (earliestarriving) multipath of each additional base station, at step 518.

The finger processors are then operated to determine the arrival timesof the transmissions from all assigned base stations (i.e., basestations assigned with one or more finger processors), at step 522. Thearrival times can be measured at approximately the same time to minimizethe adverse impacts from movement by the remote terminal and slewing ofthe reference oscillator. The time offsets between pairs of basestations are then determined based on the measured arrival times, atstep 524, and reported to the system, at step 526. The system can thendetermine the position of the remote terminal based on the reported timeoffsets.

The multipaths for the base stations are processed by the remoteterminal based on a clock signal generated by a reference oscillator,which can be a voltage controlled crystal oscillator (VCXO) or someother clock source. The reference oscillator is typically operated totrack the timing of one of the multipaths being processed. For example,the reference oscillator may be operated to track the timing of theearliest arriving multipath, the strongest multipath, or is some othermultipath. As the remote terminal moves about the communication system,or is in communication with multiple base stations, or is hand off fromone significant base station to another, the reference oscillator may beadjusted to track the timing of a new base station. The referenceoscillator may thus be slewed from one time reference to another.

The received signal is processed based on the clock signal from thereference oscillator, and the arrival time measurements are thusaffected by adjustments to the reference oscillator. If the signalarrival times for all base stations are measured at approximately thesame point in time, the measurements are similarly affected by the clocksignal. However, in certain instances, finger processors are notavailable for assignment to all base stations needed to determine theposition of the remote terminal. In this case, the signal arrival timescannot be measured concurrently and some of the measurements need to beperformed sequentially. In accordance with another aspect of theinvention, if no finger processors are available for assignment to basestations not in the active set, the signal arrival times for these basestations are measured at the remote terminal in the time period betweenupdates of the reference oscillator. This can reduce the adverse effectdue to slewing of the reference oscillator on the accuracy of thearrival time measurements. To reduce the adverse effect due to theremote terminal's movement, the signal arrival times can be measuredwithin as short a time window as possible.

The reference oscillator at the remote terminal is typically updated ata particular update rate (e.g., once every 200 msec for a specificdesign). At each update instance, a particular control value is providedto the reference oscillator to move it toward the timing of thesignificant base station. The reference oscillator then moves from itscurrent state toward a final state based on a particular (e.g., RC)response characteristic. At the next update instance, another controlvalue may be provided, and the reference oscillator moves in a similarmanner once more.

If the signal arrival times are measured such that some of themeasurements are made before the update of the reference oscillator andother measurements are made after the update, the slewing of thereference oscillator can adversely affect the accuracy of themeasurements. To reduce the effects of slewing, the signal arrival timesfor all base stations of interest are measured between updates of thereference oscillator. The signal arrival times can also be measured aparticular time period, t_(DELAY), after an update to allow thereference oscillator some time to settle toward its final value. Thedelay period t_(DELAY) can be selected based on the particular design ofthe reference oscillator and may be selected such that the referenceoscillator has reached a particular value (e.g., 90 percent of the finalvalue). After the delay period t_(DELAY) passes, the signal arrivaltimes can be measured in various manners.

In one embodiment, the searcher element is employed to measure thesignal arrival times for the base stations not in the active set.Initially, the searcher element processes the received signal andsearches for strong multipaths. This can be achieved by searching forpilots in the received signal at various PN offsets. A list of potentialpilots for the inactive base stations can then be compiled. This listincludes identified pilots that exceed a particular signal quality.

To measure the signal arrival times, the searcher element cansynchronize to each pilot in the list. Since the PN offset of the pilotwas previously determined, the searcher element can synchronize to thepilot in a shorter time period, which may be dictated in part by theamount of movement in the pilot since it was last processed. For eachsynchronized pilot, the searcher element measures the signal arrivaltime. At approximately the same time, the assigned finger processors arealso operated to measure the signal arrival times for other basestations (in the active set). Again, the signal arrival times for allbase stations of interest can be measured within as short a time periodas possible to minimize the effects of movement (if any) by the remoteterminal. The measured arrival times from the searcher element and thefinger processors are subsequently processed in the manner describedabove.

The measurements of the signal arrival times by the searcher element canbe scheduled. In the time period between updates of the referenceoscillator, the signal arrival times for a number of base stations canbe measured sequentially. For example, the pilots from these basestations can be processed in a particular order determined to providegood results.

The list of potential pilots can be traversed such that pilots fromdifferent base stations are processed sequentially. In oneimplementation, the earliest arriving pilot for each base station isprocessed in sequential order. For example, the earliest arriving pilotfor a first base station is processed first, the earliest arriving pilotfor a second base station is processed next, and so on. In anotherimplementation, the pilot with the best signal quality for each basestation is processed in sequential order. For example, the (best signalquality) pilot for the first base station is processed first, the (bestsignal quality) pilot for the second base station is processed next, andso on. Different processing orders can also be contemplated and arewithin the scope of the invention.

The signal arrival times can be measured by the searcher element basedon the pilots, as described above. Alternatively, the signal arrivaltimes can be measured by processing the radio frames. In anotherembodiment, one or more previously assigned finger processors are(temporarily) employed to measure signal arrival times for base stationsnot in the active set. Finger processors assigned to the lowest signalquality multipaths for the active base stations can be selected forreassignment. The finger processors can be reassigned for the timeperiod needed to measure the signal arrival times and can thereafter bereturned back to the active base stations. The reassigned fingerprocessors can be operated to measure the signal arrival times for theinactive base stations in similar manner as that described above.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of the processing to determinethe position of a remote terminal, wherein finger processors are notavailable for assignment to base stations not in the active set.Initially, the base stations in the active set of the remote terminalare identified, at step 612. The number of additional base stationsneeded to be processed to determine the position of the remote terminalis then determined, at step 614. Thereafter, the signal arrival timesare determined for the base stations via two processing paths.

In one processing path, a list of potential pilots for the additionalbase stations is compiled, at step 632. A pilot for an unprocessedadditional base station is then selected from the list, at step 634. Theselected pilot can be the earliest multipath for the additional basestation. The arrival time of the transmission from this additional basestation is determined (e.g., using a searcher element or a reassignedfinger processor), at step 636. A determination is then made whether alladditional base stations have been processed, at step 638. If the answeris no, the process returns to step 634 and another pilot for anotheradditional base station is selected for processing. Otherwise, theprocess continues to step 642.

In the other processing path, the signal arrival times for base stationsassigned with one or more finger processors are determined, at step 626.The signal arrival times for the active base stations can be measuredapproximately concurrently, and can also be made at or near the time thesignal arrival times are being measured for the additional basestations. The process then continues to step 642.

The time offsets between pairs of base stations are then determinedbased on the measured signal arrival times, at step 642, and reported tothe system, at step 644. The system can then determine the position ofthe remote terminal based on the time offsets.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, the position ofthe remote terminal is determined using a hybrid scheme whereby signalarrival times are measured for one or more base stations and one or moreGPS satellites, with the measurements being made close in time and/orusing available (unassigned) finger processors. The signal arrival timemeasurements for GPS satellites typically require clear line-of-sight tothe satellites. Thus, the use of GPS is generally limited to outdoorsuse where obstructions are not present, and is typically not availablefor in-building applications and where there are obstructions such asfoliage or buildings. However, GPS has extensive coverage and four ormore GPS satellites can (potentially) be received from virtuallyanywhere. In contrast, base stations are typically located in populatedareas but their signals are able to penetrate some buildings and otherobstructions. Thus, base stations can be advantageously used todetermine position within cities and (potentially) within buildings. Theposition determination can be achieved in accordance with the techniquesdescribed in the aforementioned 3GPP 25.305, TIA/EIA/IS-801, andTIA/EIA/IS-817 standard documents and U.S. Pat. No. 6,353,412.

In accordance with the hybrid scheme, each base station and each GPSsatellite represents a transmission node. To determine the position ofthe remote terminal, transmissions from three or more (non-spatiallyaligned) nodes (base stations and/or satellites) are processed. Thefourth node can be used to provide altitude and can also provideincreased accuracy (i.e., reduced uncertainty in the measured arrivaltimes). The signal arrival times can be determined for the transmissionnodes and used to compute pseudo-ranges, which can then be used (e.g.,via a trilateration technique) to determine the position of the remoteterminal. If the measurements are performed at or near the same time,the adverse effects due to slewing and mobility described above may bereduced.

The ability to quickly and accurately determine the position of theremote terminal can be advantageously used for various applications. Inone application, the position of the remote terminal can beautomatically reported to the system in some situations (e.g., in anemergency, during a 911 call). In another application, the position ofthe remote terminal can be ascertained (e.g., to retrieve a lost remoteterminal). Upon receiving a request to locate the remote terminal, amessage can be sent to command the remote terminal to perform thenecessary measurements. In yet another application, the position of theremote terminal can be used to provide more relevant information. Forexample, if a user is lost, the position of the remote terminal can beascertained and used to provide directions from that position. Asanother example, if a user desires to search for an Italian restaurant,the location of the remote terminal can be determined and used to findthe closest Italian restaurants. This feature can also be used tolocate, for example, the closest gas stations, restaurants,supermarkets, lodging, and so on.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a rake receiver 700, whichcan be used to receive and demodulate transmissions from a number ofbase stations. Rake receiver 700 can be used to implement demodulator234 in FIG. 2. One or more RF modulated signals from one or more basestations are processed and digitized by receiver 232 to generate(I_(IN)) and quadrature (Q_(IN)) samples and that are then provided torake receiver 700. In a typical implementation, the received signal issampled at a sample rate, f_(s), that is higher than the chip rate,f_(c), of the received signal. For example, the chip rate may bef_(c)=1.2288 Mcps for an IS-95 CDMA system (or 3.84 Mcps for a W-CDMAsystem) but the sample rate may be, for example, 8 times (i.e., 8×chip),16 times (i.e., 16×chip), 32 times (i.e., 32×chip), or some othermultiple times the chip rate. The higher sample rate allows for fineadjustment of the timing to “zoom in” on a multipath.

As shown in FIG. 7, the digitized I_(IN) and Q_(IN) samples fromreceiver 232 are provided to a number of finger processors 710 a through710 k. Within each assigned finger processor 710, the I_(IN) and Q_(IN)samples are provided to a PN despreader 720, which also receives a(complex) PN sequence. The complex PN sequence is generated inaccordance with the particular design of the CDMA system beingimplemented and, for some CDMA systems, is generated by multiplying theshort IPN and QPN sequences with the long PN sequence. In the IS-95 CDMAsystem, the short PN sequence is used to spread the data at thetransmitting base station, and the long PN sequence is assigned to therecipient remote terminal and used to scramble the data. The complex PNsequence is generated with a time offset corresponding to the particularmultipath being processed by that finger processor.

PN despreader 720 performs a complex multiply of the complex I_(IN) andQ_(IN) samples with the complex PN sequence and provides complexdespread I_(DES) and Q_(DES) samples to decover elements 722 and 732.Decover element 722 decovers the despread samples with one or morechannelization codes (e.g., Walsh or OVSF codes) that were used to coverthe data and generates complex decovered samples. The decovered samplesare then provided to a symbol accumulator 724 that accumulates thesamples over the length of the channelization codes to generatedecovered symbols. The decovered symbols are then provided to a pilotdemodulator 726.

For the downlink, a pilot reference is typically transmitted along withother data transmission. Depending on the particular CDMA standardimplemented, the pilot reference may be transmitted using time divisionmultiplexing (TDM) or code division multiplexing (CDM). In either case,the pilot is typically channelized with a particular channelizationcode. Thus, decover element 732 decovers the despread samples with theparticular channelization code (e.g., a Walsh code 0 for the IS-95 CDMAsystem) that was used to cover the pilot reference at the base station.The decovered pilot samples are then provided to an accumulator 734 andaccumulated over a particular time interval to generate pilot symbols.The accumulation time interval can be the duration of the pilotchannelization code, an entire pilot reference period, or some othertime interval. The pilot symbols are then provided to a pilot filter 736and used to generate pilot estimates that are provided to pilotdemodulator 726. The pilot estimates are estimated or predicted pilotsymbols for the time period when data is present.

Pilot demodulator 726 performs coherent demodulation of the decoveredsymbols from symbol accumulator 724 with the pilot estimates from pilotfilter 736 and provides demodulated symbols to a symbol combiner 740.Coherent demodulation can be achieved by performing a dot product and across product of the decovered symbols with the pilot estimates in amanner known in the art. Symbol combiner 740 receives and coherentlycombines the demodulated symbols from finger processors 710 assigned toactive base stations to provide recovered symbols, which are thenprovided to the subsequent processing element.

Searcher element 712 can be designed to include a PN despreader and a PNgenerator. The PN generator generates the complex PN sequence at varioustime offsets, possibly as directed by controller 240, in the search forthe strongest multipaths. For each time offset to be search, the PNdespreader receives and despreads the I_(IN) and Q_(IN) samples with thecomplex PN sequence at the particular time offset to provide despreadsamples. A signal quality estimator 750 then estimates the quality ofthe despread samples. This can be achieved by computing the energy ofeach despread sample (i.e., I_(DES) ²+Q_(DES) ²) and accumulating theenergy over a particular time period (e.g., the pilot reference period).Searcher element performs the search at numerous time offsets, and themultipaths having the highest signal quality measurements are selected.The available finger processors 710 can then be assigned to processthese multipaths.

The design and operation of a rake receiver for an CDMA system isdescribed in further detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,687, entitled “MOBILEDEMODULATOR ARCHITECTURE FOR A SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESSCOMMUNICATION SYSTEM,” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,165, entitled“DEMODULATION ELEMENT ASSIGNMENT IN A SYSTEM CAPABLE OF RECEIVINGMULTIPLE SIGNALS,” both assigned to the assignee of the presentinvention and incorporated herein by reference.

FIG. 7 shows a specific design of a rake receiver. Other rake receiverstructures and implementations can also be used and are within the scopeof the invention. For example, in another rake receiver design, thesamples are stored to a buffer and segments of samples at different timeoffsets are later retrieved and processed. In this design, the number offinger processors that can be implemented is limited by the processingspeed of the rake receiver. Other rake receiver designs can also becontemplated and are within the scope of the invention.

FIG. 7 also shows the circuitry used to generate the clock signal forthe elements of rake receiver 700. A phase lock loop (PLL) 762 receivesthe pilot estimates for the significant base station, determines thephase of the received pilot, and generates a control signal. The controlsignal can be updated at a particular update rate (e.g., once every 200msec or some other time period). A clock generator 764 includesreference oscillator that receives the control signal from PLL 762 andadjusts its frequency accordingly to track the phase of the pilot. Clockgenerator 764 then generates a clock signal based on the referenceoscillator and provides the clock signal to various elements within rakereceiver 700.

The processing units described herein (e.g., the rake receiver, decoder,controller, and others) can be implemented in various manners. Forexample, each of these processing units can be implemented in anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a digital signalprocessor, a microcontroller, a microprocessor, or other electroniccircuits designed to perform the functions described herein. Theprocessing units can also be integrated into one or more integratedcircuits. Also, the processing units can be implemented with ageneral-purpose or specially designed processor operated to executeinstruction codes that achieve the functions described herein. Thus, theprocessing units described herein can be implemented using hardware,software, or a combination thereof.

The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments is provided toenable any person skilled in the art to make or use the presentinvention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readilyapparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles definedherein may be applied to other embodiments without the use of theinventive faculty. Thus, the present invention is not intended to belimited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widestscope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosedherein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for determining a position of a remoteterminal in a communication system, the method comprising: identifying afirst set of one or more base stations in active communication with theremote terminal; assigning at least one finger processor of a rakereceiver to each base station in the first set; identifying a second setof one or more base stations not in active communication with the remoteterminal; assigning an available finger processor to at least one basestation in the second set; performing a time measurement for each basestation assigned with at least one finger processor; wherein theperforming includes processing a multipath for the base station toobtain samples, and processing the samples to determine a start of aradio frame for a particular transmission, and wherein the timemeasurement is indicative of the start of the radio frame, and providingoutputs indicative of time measurements obtained for base stationsassigned with finger processors.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thetime measurements are indicative of times of arrival of transmissionsfrom the base stations in the first and second sets.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the time measurements correspond to SFN-SFNmeasurements for the assigned base stations in accordance with W-CDMAstandard.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the time measurements forthe assigned base stations are performed at approximately the sameinstance in time.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:determining time offsets between pairs of assigned base stations basedon the time measurements, and wherein the outputs are indicative of thedetermined time offsets.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprisingdetermining the position of the remote terminal based on the determinedtime offsets.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the position of theremote terminal is determined using trilateration.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the time measurement for each assigned base station isbased on an earliest arriving multipath received for the base station.9. The method of claim 1, wherein the time measurements for the assignedbase stations are based on transmissions on a particular channel. 10.The method of claim 9, wherein the particular channel is a broadcastchannel.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the time measurements forthe assigned base stations are based on pilot references transmitted bythe base stations.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the timemeasurements are performed for at least three base stations orsatellites.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the time measurements aredetermined with a resolution of eighth chip or finer.
 14. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the time measurements are performed using interpolationto achieve improved resolution.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein thecommunication system conforms to W-CDMA standard.
 16. A method fordetermining a position of a remote terminal in a communication system,the method comprising: identifying a first set of one base stations inactive communication with the remote terminal; assigning at least onefinger processor of a rake receiver to each base station in the firstset; performing a time measurement for each base station in the firstset using an assigned finger processor; identifying a second set of oneor more base stations not in active communication with the remoteterminal; and performing a time measurement for each base station in thesecond set using one or more processing elements, and wherein timemeasurements for base stations in the first and second sets areperformed between updates of a control signal for a reference clock usedto perform the time measurements, and wherein at least one of theperformings includes: processing a multipath for the base station toobtain samples, and processing the samples to determine a start of aradio frame for a particular transmission, and wherein the timemeasurement is indicative of the start of the radio frame.
 17. Themethod of claim 16, wherein the time measurements are indicative oftimes of arrival of transmissions from the base stations in the firstand second sets.
 18. The method of claim 16, wherein the timemeasurements for the base stations in the second set are based on pilotreferences transmitted by the base stations.
 19. The method of claim 16,wherein the time measurements for the base stations in the second setare performed using a searcher element.
 20. The method of claim 16,wherein the time measurements for the base stations in the second setare performed sequentially.
 21. The method of claim 16, wherein the timemeasurements for the base stations in the second set are performed aftera particular delay period from an update of the control signal.